Vladimir Putin gave Donald Trump a strict 15-minute window to make a late-night phone call to the Kremlin after White House peace talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Laura Ingraham that after his discussions with Zelensky and a host of European leaders on Monday,

Why it matters: Putin has shown no interest in sitting down with Zelensky through 3.5 years of war. President Trump claims that's now changed, and that a presidential meeting is the key to unlocking peace.

Zelensky talks puts Kremlin in a bind: accept and legitimise Kyiv’s leader or refuse and face fresh US sanctions. Read here

Doing so would require the Russian leader to “accept the failure of sitting down with a president he considers a joke from a country that doesn’t exist”

President Trump seeks to broker a meeting of the two leaders to end Europe’s most destructive war in generations.

O n August 18th Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, will enter the White House to meet Donald Trump and discuss ending the war in Ukraine. For Mr Zelensky it is a perilous moment. Since Mr Trump met Vladimir Putin,